waffle software

What's all this, then?

Feeling frustrated with the inability and incremental complexity to add to our older search tool Nuevos, we decided to start anew. By working off of Mac OS X v10.4's capabilities and by quite simply cribbing the best bits from Nuevos, we've been able to rebuild a lot of Nuevos, and add some new, useful features.

We're far from done, but we've got far enough that we feel a sneak peek, a "First Taste" is in order.

First, a word of warning

Monocle is beta-level at this point. Not every feature is as polished as should be, and several features are missing, including import of search engines from Nuevos. We feel it's okay to use Monocle and that it probably won't be dangerous, but don't expect 1.0 quality at this stage.

That said, if you have anything on your mind about Monocle, feel free to email us.

What's new?

Monocle pioneers something rarely seen in similar dedicated search tools - an easy way for mere mortals to add the new search engine they want. Just browse to a search page and perform a search. We call it "search engine discovery", but you can call it "magic". Chances are you'll want to.

Monocle kept its simple. Switch search engines at the drop of a hat with the arrow keys. Eye candy? Hold down the control key, too, and small grey panels show the names and icons of the adjacent search engines.

Tech wonks may want to note that HTTP POST queries are now supported, and that experimental support for detecting Mycroft search engines is included in the discovery (click a link and it does the rest, like Firefox). What this means is that Monocle can now use even more search engines.

Additionally, many of the features you loved from Nuevos are making a comeback. Implemented so far are the hot key (to bring up Monocle's search bar from anywhere), the customizable color scheme for the search bar and the icon for every search engine, and the menu status item, search engine choice menu (beyond just using the arrow keys) and other favorites will be returning later on.

I like this! How can I support further development?

If you can spare it, it'd be nice if you donated a buck or two. Use the button:

(Per our donation policy, a minimum of 10% of our donations at any given time will go to charity.)

• Contact Jesper, the Monocle developer.